Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Aakash Hassan
Sat 3 Jun 2023 13.14 EDT
The carriages from three trains sat piled high in an entangled wreck. Some lay sideways, while others had been thrown so high into the air on impact that they had fallen back to earth twisted and upside down.
A line of dozens of bodies covered in white sheets were laid out next to the wreckage waiting for vehicles – ambulances, local cars, even tractors – to take them away to local hospitals. Passengers’ possessions lay scattered around them, shoes and toys and thrown-open suitcases.
This was the aftermath of the deadliest train crash in India in more than two decades, when on Friday evening the Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata in West Bengal to Chennai in Tamil Nadu, switched rails and collided with a freight train in the eastern state of Odisha close to Bahanagar Bazar station, while travelling at around 80mph (130km/h).
The freight train in turn derailed some carriages of the Howrah Superfast Express train, which was travelling in the opposite direction. More than 2,000 passengers were aboard both trains.
Thousands took part in the rescue operation, which saw the National Disaster Response Force, state government teams, the air force, fire department personnel, police officers and sniffer dogs brought in to pull survivors from the chaos of twisted metal and broken glass, working in sweltering heat.
As the rescue operation drew to a close on Saturday evening, the death toll stood at 288, with 803 injured, according to a railway authority statement.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/03/wailing-for-help-passengers-and-bystanders-tell-of-india-train-crash-horror
